Former head of the official opposition in South Africa and now the Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson on foreign policy, Tony Leon, has raised serious concerns about South Africa offering to host the follow up meeting to the United Nations World Conference against racism. Speaking at a Women’s International Zionist Organization (WIZO) meeting, he questioned what good will come from this exercise? South Africa’s track record in hosting the previous UN racism conference and international concerns about how the preparatory meetings for the current conference have gone were cited as causing anxiety.
“Durban 1 cost South African taxpayers R100 million”, according to Leon, and “the results have been dismal and in terms of the advancement of the real fight against racism, almost non-existent.” If we are to host Durban 2, we must ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated. Thus, echoing sentiments we expressed on this blog Leon called on South Africa to ‘use our best endeavours and our foreign policy credentials to steer it in the right direction’.
Leon should be congratulated for speaking out so forcefully on this issue. At this time of a leadership dearth within South Africa it's reassuring to know there are still people in prominent potions who are prepared to tell it like it is. The Jewish community should follow Leon’s example. We really do have a good case on this issue. In terms of UN current rules, Durban 2 can not be held in South Africa.
Today UNWatch in their latest press release, points out that ‘the text of the UN resolution on Durban II, as well as UN practice for all review conferences, requires that the meeting be held within the framework of the General Assembly in New York, or at the UN’s European headquarters in Geneva.’ And as we know South Africa is a stickler for UN technicalities. So let’s hold them to it!
So far Canada and the US have announced that they will boycott the conference and France has threatened to withdraw if the hateful abuses of 2001 recur.
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| One of the hateful demonstrations at Durban I calling for the use of violence. Copyright 2001, ICARE & Magenta Foundation, Amsterdam, the Netherlands. |
Visit Eye on the UN for videos and images from the original conference in 2001.
Previously at IAS
I sincerely hope that the SA government does NOT agree to host this conference again... it was an utter waste of time as it did not address any racial issues whatsoever, but rather was used ONLY as a platform to attack Israel
Posted by: JoeTalin | February 18, 2008 at 11:32
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Posted by: | July 06, 2009 at 02:56